Denekamp

The history of Jewish settlement in Denekamp dates to the early eighteenth century. Sources mention a Jewish resident in 1720.

The Jews of Denekamp formed a single community together with the Jews of Ootmarsum. With the introduction of a central Dutch Jewish consistory in 1821, the combined Denekamp-Ootmarsum community was designated a Bijsynagoge or local provincial community. The community's official synagogue was located in Ootmarsum but religious services were also held in a private home in Denekamp.

Prentbriefkaart van de Vledderstraat te Denekamp met links de synagoge, ca. 1920

Postcard of Vledderstraat at Denekamp with the Synagogue in the left, ca. 1920

At first, the combined community buried its dead in a cemetery on the Almelose Straatweg in Ootmarsum. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the community used a cemetery in the village of Denekamp at Grave Es (today De Knik). From 1890 until 1939, the dead were buried at a cemetery on the Lattroperstraat.

Although the Jewish community of Denekamp grew throughout the nineteenth century, it maintained neither ritual bath nor religious school.

In 1906, the Denekamp community was administratively subsumed into that of Oldenzaal. After the dissolution of the Oldenzaal community in 1913, the Denekamp community finally was recognized as independent. A synagogue was built the same year.

During World War II almost all the Jews of Denekamp were murdered in Nazi death camps. The Denekamp community's synagogue was razed after the war. The Hebrew inscription from its façade was later mounted on the façade of the nearby Catholic Mariakapel. In 1988, a monument in memory of the Jewish community of Denekamp was unveiled on the Vledderstraat at the site of the razed synagogue. The remaining Jewish cemeteries are now maintained by the local authorities.

The Jewish population of Denekamp and surroundings:

The size of the Jewish community over time

1748

21

1809

52

1869

63

1899

72

1930

54